The interpretation timeline

Job 21:20

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Job 21:20 · Douay-Rheims

“His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.”

Patristic before A.D. 750

604

A.D.

Gregory the Great Patristic

c. A.D. 540–604

“Ver. 20. His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 59. This man, if whilst placed in this life he had been willing to open his eyes to his sin, would not hereafter 'drink of the wrath of the Almighty.' But he that here turns away his eyes from the sight of his guilt, cannot there avoid the sentence of condemnation. But often those that do not fear eternal punishments, at all events on account of temporal chastening are afraid to do what is bad. But there are some that have become so hardened in wickedness that they do not fear to be stricken even in the very things that they love, if only they can accomplish what they have iniquitously planned.”

Source

670 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet

Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500

1274

A.D.

Thomas Aquinas Catholic

1225–1274

“So he says, "His eyes will see their destruction," in the destruction of his sons or other kinds of adversity; and in this itself, "he will drink of the fury of the Almighty." For the punishment of the father is that his sons are punished while he lives, and not if they were punished after his death.”

Source

Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.